Thank you for your interest in the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. It's my pleasure, as leader of the CHP, to send you this introduction to what we believe is one of the most important political movements in Canada, and part of a world-wide movement to reclaim the benefits of Biblical wisdom as the foundation of civil government—to make civil government, in the words of Scripture, "God's minister to you for good."
Over the years our Party has been registered in Canada, we've often experienced a peculiar unwillingness on the part of the major media to bring our message to Canadians. Therefore, we have to 'become our own media' through more expensive means, in order to do what the 'free press' in a democratic society ought to regard as their duty—helping to ensure that the electorate has adequate information about all the choices available to them.
In the early 1980s, many people began to realize that, although there are Christian MPs in other parties, party discipline has become so oppressive that those MPs aren't allowed to speak about their deepest moral and ethical concerns; they are told when to speak and what to say; their Christian convictions rarely make it out of the caucus room. That's still true.
Most Canadians realize that the loss of a moral foundations is at the heart of of Canada's problems today. There are no serious issues that are not, at their core, moral issues. For example, consider deficit spending: most politicians agree that deficit spending is wrong because, they say, it's bad economics to spend money you don't have; that's true, as far as it goes—but it doesn't go far enough. Deficit spending is wrong because it's THEFT—stealing money from future generations to buy votes today. And theft is a MORAL issue.
So some Christian citizens--including many who had previously experienced Christian politics in Europe, and knew it could be very beneficial to society--decided to form a Christian political party for Canada. (The Christian Prime Minister of Holland at the beginning of the 20th century, Abraham Kuyper, instituted the world's first workers' compensation plan, old age pensions, widow's pensions, health care, etc. Kuyper's party was called "The Anti-Revolutionary Party", referring to its opposition to the militant Secularism of the French Revolution, and the devastating consequences when that Revolution turned into the Reign of Terror.)
In 1986, these people held a series of meetings across Canada to establish a grass-roots base for the new Party; in 1987 they held the founding convention of the Christian Heritage Party at Hamilton, Ontario. The CHP's first leader was Mr. Ed Vanwoudenberg. He led the Party into its first election in 1988; although it did not elect any MPs, it attracted more than 100,000 votes nation-wide — a creditable start. A few years later, Ed stepped down in an effort to broaden the Party's appeal beyond its Dutch roots. The current leader, Ron Gray, is a native-born Canadian. He was elected leader in November of 1995.
The CHP has contested general elections in 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004. In every election, it has had candidates from coast to coast.
The CHP brings together Christians from many different denominational perspectives: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Mennonite, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reformed, United... we cannot actually list them all, because we don't have any denominational qualification for membership. These people all bring their own understanding of the application of Biblical principles to contemporary issues, as well as life-experience and wisdom; at the CHP's triennial conventions, they work out a consensus of policies which they think most accurately represent the application of the wisdom of Scripture to contemporary issues. Between conventions, the National Leader formulates policy with the aid of the Party's Policy, Planning & Strategy Committee and in consultation with the National Board, which comprises the table officers (president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer) plus all the provincial presidents. Those interim policy statements are subject to ratification by the members at the next convention.
Like many Canadians, we believe the Bible provides a sure guide for every aspect of life. Even those who don't believe as we do would surely agree that Christians have a right, when we come into the public arena, to have our ideas heard. But within the parties now sitting in the House of Commons, that is not the case. Because of their fear of the media, the parties now in Parliament shun Biblical wisdom in favour of "political correctness".
The CHP is neither "right wing" nor "left wing"; while we do favor free enterprise economics, we do not advocate laissez-faire capitalism of the kind promoted by the hard economic Right and Libertarians. We believe that kind of economics, unless informed by Christian charity, inevitably degenerates into "might is right", and the exploitation of the weak by the strong. It holds the seeds of the same kind of social Darwinism that drove Naziism, which is the obverse face of totalitarianism to Communism.
On the other hand, we do not favor a "nanny-state" that intrudes needlessly into the lives of its citizens. Government and the free market share this characteristic: both can be useful servants, but both are terrible masters.
Canada's Parliamentary government has degenerated, in the last four or five decades, from a responsible democratic constitutional monarchy to an imperial oligarchy. One man now makes appointments in every locus of power in our system of government: the Prime Minister (with the advice of unelected advisors) appoints cabinet officers and parliamentary secretaries, senators, Supreme Court justices, ambassadors, the heads of Crown corporations and agencies — even the Governor-General. That concentration of power must be broken up and made subject to checks and balances.
Equally important, the unconstitutional usurpation of the legislative prerogatives of Parliament by the courts has brought Canada into a constitutional crisis. The traditional 'separation of powers' in government has been shredded by the unilateral actions of the courts. We no longer live in a democracy, but in a judicial oligarchy—a dictatorship of judges. The only way to preserve democracy is for Parliament to summon the courage to defend threseparation of powers—to stand up to the courts and demand that they limit themselves to their legitimate sphere of authority. The doctrine of the separation of powers is simple: the elected Legislature makes the laws; the Cabinet and the Civil Service administer the laws; and the Judiciary settles disputes by applying the laws as it finds them written.
The CHP—and only the CHP—has proposed a concrete and workable plan to restrain the judicial activism of unelected judges, accountable to no one. The CHP's plan would retain the independence of the judiciary in matters of law and fact; but would make the courts accountable to Parliament for their obligation to be faithful to the Canadian Constitution. The CHP plan is simply for Parliament to create a Standing Committee on the Judiciary, and arm it with the authority to review court decisions on the sole ground of their constitutionality. If the Standing Committee found a court decision to be unconstitutional, it would prepare a bill to amend that decision; Parliament would then vote of the bill like any other Act. The Standing Committee on the Judiciary should also have the authority to approve or reject proposed appointments to the Supreme Court bench; and to initiate impeachment of Supreme Coirt justices on grounds of moral turpitude, bias, corruption or neglect. The legislation creating this Committee must, of course, be sheltered under the 'Notwithstanding Clause'—Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Our Party's long-term goal is to restore respect for the principles upon which Canada's Constitution acknowledges this nation was founded, and by which it grew in its first century into greatness, peace and prosperity. As the Preamble to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms declares:
"Canada was founded upon principles which recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law."
Those principles have been under relentless attack for decades. We invite you to help us restore them to their rightful place.
Apart from a virtual 'blackout' in the major metropolitan media, we have also suffered at the hands of many uninformed persons who have made mis-statements about the CHP. Let me address a few of those, to get them out of the way:
MYTH:'The CHP seeks to establish a theocracy.'
REALITY:The CHP does not seek to "make Canada Christian" by government
fiat. We're politicians, not evangelists. We merely seek to restore
Judeo-Christian Biblical principles to the place of primacy they held
when this nation was established.
Guided by those principles for the first 100 years of our history,
every generation of Canadians lived better than their parents. But
since we turned away from those principles, we have plunged into
unmanageable debt, burdening future generations; and we have
experienced rising crime and moral corruption that make our cities less
safe for our children that they once were.
MYTH: 'There are Christians in all the other parties; we don't need a
Christian party.'
REALITY: It's true, there are Christians in other parties. But party
discipline strangles them: MPs are told by the 'party whip' what to say
and when to say it—and in today's climate of 'political correctness',
Christian MPs in the other parties are simply not allowed to represent
their deepest convictions. If they do, they are not supported by their
party.
That was why the founders of the CHP saw the need for a party
unswervingly committed to support Christian MPs in advocating Biblical
principles—Justice, Honesty, Compassion, Self-Control, Prudence,
Diligence and Thrift.
You have to wonder: to which of those biblical principles do our
critics object?
MYTH: 'Canada is a pluralist society. A Christian political party is
offensive to non-Christian faiths.'
REALITY: According to the 2001 census, the minority faiths in Canada
are each less than 2% of the population, and all together total about
6%. The atheist/agnostic category totals about 15%; but the more
militant members of this Secularist minority control the four major
institutions that most affect all our lives—government, courts, the
education establishment and the news and entertainment media. It is
these militant Secularists who campaign against Christian principles in
public life, not the minority faiths. Indeed, Secularists use the
minority faiths as their 'stalking-horse' to attack Christians, to try
to drive us out of the public square.
But far from being a threat to the minority faiths in Canada, the 80%
of Canadians who declare they are Christians are the only group with
the numerical potential to oppose the Secularist juggernaut; we thus
constitute a protective bulwark for the minority faiths against the
militant Secularism that seeks to drive all people of faith out of the
public square.
Two realities must be addressed, if we are to understand this issue properly:
1 - More and more leaders and adherents of the minority faiths in Canada are coming to realize that Secularism is not neutral: it is implacably hostile to all people of faith. The only real hope the minority faiths have to survive the onslaught of militant Secularism is to make common cause with the 80% of Canadians who identify themselves as 'Christian'.
Here is a clear example: when the UK amended its Public Education Act in 1989, Parliament included a stipulation that "public education in the UK must include religious instruction of a significantly Christian character." This amendment was supported by both the Jewish and Muslim communities.
Asked why he had supported the amendment, the late Rabbi Emmanuel Jakobovitz, who represented the Jewish community in the House of Lords, said, "I was educated in an Anglican school. The fact that they took their faith seriously allowed me to take my faith seriously. The enemy of Judaism is not Christianity, it is militant Secularism." The Rabbi was right.
2 - If Christians are told they must leave at home what they consider their best contributions when they enter the public dialogue about what kind of nation we are building for our children, isn't that religious bigotry? Wouldn't you agree that when Christians look into the public policy dialogue, they have a right to hear their convictions expressed, and not arbitrarily excluded?
Of course, every reasonable Canadian would agree. And that's the mandate of the Christian Heritage Party: to ensure that no Canadian will ever be denied the right to support a Party that actually believes the Preamble to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: "Canada was established upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law."
If the word "supremacy" has any meaning at all, that means that any legislation written, and any court judgement rendered must respect God's standards of right and wrong. Any statute or judgement which fails that test is, in fact, unconstitutional. That includes:
Only the CHP has opposed this blatant theft of your money by the parties now in the House: Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and BQ members of Parliament and their parties have all defended using your money to pay for their election campaigns—without your consent!
These and many other corruptions of the political process in Canada are, if the Preamble to the Charter means anything,B> unconstitutional. And almost every decision of the Supreme Court for the past 17 years has violated the ethical standards of constitutionality, as well as the separation of powers.
But who will 'bell the cat'? Who can control this unconstitutional usurpation of legislative authority by the Supreme Court?
The House of Commons could—if we had MPs with the courage to face the media's scorn for addressing 'politically incorrect' issues. As Senator Anne Cools has aptly said, "The problem is not entirely judicial activism. It is also cowardice in the House of Commons."
Exactly: Parliament has failed to apply Biblical standards of right and wrong to moral questions, because the politicians we have elected for the past 40 years have trembled in fear of the media. In that sense, the media have become the real, unseen government: they control what information is given to the public, and they control the politicians, who fear what the media may do to them if they take a strong stand for righteousness.
The CHP wants to take that stand for you, if you are one of the majority of Canadians who long to see this nation restored to righteous principles of government. But to do that, we need your help. If you're a Christian, please pray about making Jesus Lord of every facet of your life—including your role as a citizen. Think about joining and supporting the CHP. And if you are an adherent of another faith, please consider that no other party is willing to defend the standards of righteousness and morality shared by virtually all of the world's great religions. All religions are free to practice their faith in Canada precisely because of our Christian roots; if we do not defend those roots, all religious liberty is in peril. Recent Secularist initiatives demonstrate this clearly.
Write and tell us what direction you would like this nation and this Party to take. This is a party that will listen to you.
Sincerely,
Ron Gray
National Leader/chef
Christian Heritage Party of Canada/Parti de l'Héritage Chrétien du
Canada
leader@chp.ca